


Epilogue: The Old Fisherman’s Quiet Guardian

by montes-carpatus (Carpathyah)



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Epilogue, Fisherman!Geoff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Merman!Gavin, Merman!Ryan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-14 21:18:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3425927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carpathyah/pseuds/montes-carpatus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Epilogue to: The Fisherman's Encounter With The Merman.<br/>Gavin follows through his promise after the death of his best friend; protecting the fisherman he fell in love with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Epilogue: The Old Fisherman’s Quiet Guardian

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happened after Ryan's passing and what had happened to Geoff and Gavin.

Many times a month a book could no longer soothe the fisherman’s tired heart. His body still jerking in the early hours of the morning to the imaginary sound of a tail splashing against the waters. Thinking his lover had finally returned, he would rush out onto the dock and call his name into the air, to wait and see if it was really him. It was not, and he would let his body fall to the ground. Tears would escape his eyes and onto his pyjama pants. It would be past sunrise when he would gain the strength to lift himself up to change into his uniform to begin another day on the sea.

Sometimes, the routine would drive him to think he was never real, an older fisherman’s tale. James Ryan was a name he made up in his dreams; his imagination. Mermen weren’t real, and neither was Ryan. His denial left him lonelier and restless.

Little did he know that the magic that Ryan had left behind was always in the waters around him. It provided him with the fish he needed to continue working, it provided him safety from oncoming storms, it provided him with a presence that could perhaps soothe his heart.

The presence was the lost merman’s oldest friend. Bound by oath before and after death, the young merman with the sparkling green tail made his daily routine to check on Geoff to make sure he wasn’t feeling too lost. Gavin, vaguely hearing Ryan’s orders in the waters, made sure to guide his boat to safety when he was done for the day.

Geoff could remember his voice like the sound of rushing waves. He could remember his touch, his warmth, and the taste of his lips. His denial became acceptance, and to keep on remembering his companion, he read aloud to the sea. Sometimes he would laugh mid-chapter, because he was foolishly talking to empty waters or because he was sure Ryan would ask what that was and he would spend twenty-minutes trying to explain it. The laughter would sometimes turn into tears, because he believed he was gone, and he would not talk about where Moscow was.

Gavin, never raising his head above water, listened carefully to the stories under the boat. Ryan’s magic was quiet during this time, probably letting Gavin listen to the story of a Russian spy in America.

“Oh Ryan, if you could hear me, either in the water or in the sky, give me a sign, anything, to tell me I’m not alone, here, in this world,” Gavin heard Geoff cry one morning. He was at lost at what to do until a little crab pinched his tail, almost giving away his presence.  The little crab told him to throw a fish. Gavin thought it was an odd request but he threw a fish onto his dock.

Geoff heard a thump and saw a single fish flop around on his deck. He rose from his place and picked up the fish and threw it back in the water. He smiled and wiped away the tears that formed into his eyes. He was still there.

Gavin followed Geoff to the shore and he stuck around until twilight, hearing the man’s footsteps over his head. Geoff had some plastic wrapped around his arm. It wasn’t the first time Gavin would see a part of his body with plastic wrap around his arms.

Geoff tattooed what he could remember of Ryan on top of his aging skin. Blank spots were filled with symbols and words that would remind him of his lost lover.

His heart only started to heal when the hairs on his head began to turn white like the foam that the ocean brought to the shore. At the age of 60, Geoff Ramsey had let go of his fishing career, accepting that he had more than enough to die with. He had gone through his drawers and found the old pair of swim trunks. Touching them could bring tears to his eyes, but, he knew that Ryan’s teachings shouldn’t go to waste. Geoff’s rushed walking woke up Gavin, who was asleep on a rock not too far. Gavin peaked his head above water to see Geoff at the shore. He wished he could get closer but he was always afraid of being seen and giving himself away.

Gavin got tired sometimes of looking over an old fisherman, and when he would express his groaning, he could feel the waters getting uneasy; colder.

“Alright! Alright! I’m bloody going Ryan! Piss off,” he would complain and make his way into the fresh waters. Gavin, would make a little splash, just to alert Geoff of a presence. He was sure that most of the time, Geoff did not hear it, but it became a habit and he would lift his green tail of the water for a split second to make a sound.

Gavin had listened through one-hundred and twenty-seven book in twenty years, and he did not tire of it very often. There was something soothing about being in Ryan’s place. Not as a lover, but as a companion to the lonely fisherman. He would cry with him, he would rush to him in the night when Ryan woke him from his rest in the reef to check on him. Gavin had no idea how to soothe him. He rocked the boat, asking for the Gods to grant the fisherman some peace in his mourning. He would stay past the crying, and into the next evening.

When they un-cuffed him from his chains, some believed he would die with his friend, but he did not. He knew Ryan better than anyone in the kingdom and his magic was left to seep into the waters. Poseidon tried holding him down, to make him a teacher to his grand-daughters but he refused. He accepted exile from his kingdom when he publically decided to be Ryan’s ghost. He was soon accepted into a kingdom closer to shore. The fresher waters were harder to get used to, but Triton was soon to apologise for his father, and accept him in his own emerging kingdom. He gave him the freedom to be Ryan’s voice when the waters couldn’t.

Geoff stepped into the water, forgetting how cold it could be. Gavin could feel Ryan’s magic acting up to Geoff’s presence in the water but Gavin held his distance. He dove under, and watched Geoff’s body plunge under. He was a bit awkward, and Gavin was ready to save him if needed. If he squinted, he could see Ryan’s ghost along there with him, his hands at his elbows, guiding him, making sure he was kicking his feet correctly. Gavin felt like he was a bystander to history.  His heart dropped, and he was sure this was when Ryan had fallen in love with the fisherman.  Gavin personally couldn’t see anything remarkable about him, but as long as the waters were calm and clear, Ryan was happy in death.

Geoff swam further out off the beach until his feet couldn’t touch the bottom anymore. His bones ached as he kicked but he did his best to remember what the merman had taught him.

He was sure he saw the sun shine off of moving green scales. That’s when he believed he had been in the water too long and went back to shore. He sat on his towel and pushed back his gray hair as he let the warm sun dry him.

That’s when he felt a pinch at his hip. “Ouch! Fuck!” he cursed as he looked over to see a crab. A crab that could fit in the palm of his hand. The crab did not run away, and Geoff lowered his hand to pick him up.

“Hey little fella, long time no see,” he greeted as the creature clicked his claws. “Now you wanna be friendly?” The crab just continued clipping. “Twenty years later.”

Geoff needed glasses to read the pages then, and his arthritis made holding the book much harder. His voice cracked at random intervals and made reading a much longer task. Gavin still stayed, afraid of how fast humans aged. Sometimes, he would forget Ryan and why he was reading books to the water. He didn’t walk the beach anymore.

Gavin didn’t understand very well when Ryan’s magic was anxious, when the waters got dark and he felt like he couldn’t breathe very well.  

He no longer heard footprints for many days at a time, and Gavin decided to investigate. He climbed up the old rope and pulled himself onto the dock. His lungs not used to being out of the water he pulled himself to the door and oddly found it open. Geoff was laying in bed, not breathing. Gavin pulled at the sheets where he was and no response.

“Geoff! Geoff! Oh for the love of God, Geoff!” he shouted. Nothing. Gavin was drying out fast when he pulled himself back to the dock. He needed to signal a human for help. He found a bell and rang it as loudly as he could until he couldn’t any longer and threw himself back into the water. He must’ve pulled the right bell when he heard footsteps coming onto the boat.

There was silence for many days.

Until he felt a second presence into the water.

A familiar laughter, a familiar voice.

Gavin weeped, for the fisherman’s ghost was among him and his promise was kept. He swam back to his kingdom, where he mourned again. He pulled out the scrolls and wrote what Ryan would’ve wanted to write: the story of how a lonely fisherman fell in love with a magical merman.

 


End file.
